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UNCLAS GUANGZHOU 011657 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EB, DRL, R, E, EAP/CM, EAP/PD, ECA 
STATE PASS USTR FOR STRATFORD 
USDOC FOR 4420/ITA/MAC/MCQUEEN, CELICO, DAS LEVINE 
USPACOM FOR FPA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM ECON SOCI KPAO PINR CH
SUBJECT:  Heart of Gold: It Isn't Easy Doing Good -- The NGO 
Registration Odyssey in South China 
 
REF: GUANGZHOU 7743 
 
(U) THIS DOCUMENT IS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.  PLEASE 
PROTECT ACCORDINGLY.  NOT FOR RELEASE OUTSIDE U.S.GOVERNMENT 
CHANNELS.  NOT FOR INTERNET PUBLICATION. 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU) While headlines trumpet the growth of Chinese 
civil society, philanthropy, and volunteerism as part of a 
budding harmonious society, the truth in South China is that 
legal status is out of reach for most non-governmental 
organizations (NGOs) - foreign and domestic.  In this legal 
gray area NGOs can still provide services but their advocacy 
role and ability to reach out to the general population is 
strictly limited.  Through 30 interviews with NGO, 
government, and university officials Congenoff tracked the 
path of NGOs on the registration odyssey in South China. 
 
What is an Official Chinese NGO? 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) While NGO is a common term that refers to an 
organization that carries on certain activities it has a 
very specific legal definition in China that refers only to 
organizations registered with the Ministry of Civil Affairs 
(MCA).  In order to be a legal NGO (with one or two minor 
exceptions) an organization must be registered with the MCA 
as a social organization (a membership organization for a 
specific activity), a foundation (a fund to disperse money 
for projects) or a non-profit professional institution 
(private school, research institute or hospital).  While 
government NGOs (GONGOS) technically fall under this law 
their case is handled separately in septel.  There are other 
creative ways of registering, such as registering as a 
normal business through the business bureau (septel), but 
that is, strictly speaking, illegal because all NGOs are 
legally required to have registration through the MCA. 
Since the registration requirements for the aforementioned 
three types of MCA registration are similar their cases are 
handled together below. 
 
Looking for a Sponsor to Lend a Hand (And a Reputation) 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The largest stumbling block in NGO registration is 
finding a `professional leading organization' (sponsor or 
mother-in-law agency) to help you register with the Ministry 
of Civil Affairs.  A professional leading organization can 
be a government ministry or mass organization (such as the 
Women's Federation, Communist Youth League or China Labor 
Union).  Before a NGO can begin registration it must have 
already found its government sponsor.  Actual sponsor 
responsibilities only involve reviewing yearly financial and 
program reports but the underlying (and widespread) rule is 
that a sponsor will be fully responsible if something goes 
wrong with a NGO's activities. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) In interviews with local government and NGO 
officials it was commonly stated that there is little 
incentive for a department such as the Ministry of Education 
or the Public Security Bureau to be adventurous enough to 
become responsible for an independent organization.  In 
addition most sponsors will only help one NGO of a certain 
type.  For example, the Bureau of Environmental Protection 
reportedly will not sponsor additional NGOs because it 
already is a sponsor to a government-associated non- 
governmental organization (GONGO).  MCA officials stated 
that the rule was not that strict but any decisions about 
whether to sponsor a NGO or not are completely up to the 
government department. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) The Guangzhou and Shenzhen municipal and Guangdong 
Provincial MCA offices all stated that they play no formal 
role to help NGOs find a sponsor. Some local NGO officials 
charged that the MCA has even been blatantly obstructionist 
in rejecting and discouraging departments to act as sponsors 
for certain organizations.  In one case a NGO's founder was 
reportedly told that its sponsor's activities didn't 
 
sufficiently match its own and the MCA could not give him 
any other suggestions for government departments that could 
serve as a sponsor because the list of potential sponsors 
was secret.  MCA said there is no guide or list to help 
people locate the government department that matches their 
activities but that it ca give advice in an informal way. 
 
Friendship Only Goes So Far 
--------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (U) While it is logical that many government departments 
are unwilling to assume responsibility for sponsoring a new 
unknown NGO even NGOs that have a long history of unofficial 
government cooperation often have little luck with 
registration.  Unregistered NGOs, particularly health- 
related NGOs, commonly and openly work with government 
departments for activities.  The Disabled Federation works 
with Habitat for Humanity to build houses and with Handicap 
International on prostheses programs, the Shenzhen and 
Nanning Centers for Disease Control (CDCs) work with AIDS 
Care China, Chi Heng Foundation, and Doctors without Borders 
on AIDS care while Handa (leprosy rehabilitation) works 
closely with government dermatological institutes.  All of 
these organizations have been cooperating with their 
government unofficial partners for several years, despite 
their "illegal" unregistered status.  However, almost every 
organization stated that official NGO registration 
sponsorship was a slim possibility. 
 
A Question of the Bottom-Line for Sponsors 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Certain government departments can also face 
financial risk in sponsoring a NGO.  Currently, many 
international donors are wary of giving money directly to an 
unregistered NGO because it has no legal "non-profit" status 
and often cannot have a legal organizational bank account. 
In order to give money to a local unregistered NGO the 
international donor would have to place the money directly 
into the NGO director's personal bank account - a situation 
its board of directors would not allow.  Some intrepid 
unregistered NGOs have been able to work out an 
accommodation with its unofficial government partners.  The 
international donor will give money directly to the related 
government department and it will be charged with 
cooperating with the unregistered NGO for disbursement and 
programming.  For example, the Bill Clinton Foundation 
distributes free anti-retro viral drugs (ARV) for the 
treatment of children with HIV and the Ministry of Health 
(often through the CDC) relies on NGOs to help identify the 
children, and develop adherence counseling programs to 
ensure implementation of the program.   This still is 
technically "illegal" because the NGO is unregistered but 
NGOs, particularly in the health sector, have been able to 
use this system effectively with little interference from 
the MCA. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) In some cases this kind of cooperation works very 
well and in some there are charges that the government 
partner will skim 10-20% of the money off the top or only 
institute its own token program and use the donor money for 
everyday expenses.  None of the NGO officials interviewed 
specifically named their partners but only they had "heard 
of it happening".  While this system is effective for 
funding programming, it can undermine a government 
department's willingness to become an official sponsor to a 
NGO.  If a government office helps a NGO to obtain official 
status, the NGO will then have legal non-profit status, be 
able to have its own organizational bank account and be able 
to independently pursue international donor funds.  NGOs 
could be motivated to eliminate the "middle-man" or to act 
more independently.  Most importantly, the government 
department can lose one of its sources of program funding if 
the NGO is directly funded by the international donor. 
 
Fire Safety First! 
------------------ 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Even if the sponsor requirement is met there are 
many other hurdles that must be overcome in order to be able 
 
to register.  During the course of the registration 
investigation (every applicant in Guangdong Province has a 
personal site visit by a MCA investigator), Huiling is a 
local organization that runs a school, adult workshop and 
kindergarten for disabled people that is majority-run by 
`lay' Vatican-associated Catholic priests from Hong Kong. 
During their MCA investigation the staff was told its 
kitchen is too small for the kindergarten and violated fire 
safety codes.  When asked if they considered trying to raise 
the funds for the renovation they felt that it would still 
be hard to get registration.  A municipal MCA official (in a 
different city) also listed office fire safety codes as one 
of the main pitfalls organizations run into during the 
registration process.  According to the registration 
department of the Guangzhou Municipal Association for 
Industry and Commerce there is no systemized fire code 
inspection or site investigation for normal businesses. 
 
The Bureaucratic Maze 
---------------------- 
 
¶10.  (U) Another municipal MCA has a six-month `pre- 
registration' process all NGOs that want to register as 
social organizations (the most common NGO type) are required 
to go through that it is not mandated by the 1998 law.  In 
order to have the mandatory pre-registration process begin, 
all proof of rental agreements (with original house deed), 
sponsorship agreements, necessary deposits, and paperwork 
must be ready.  After the pre-registration is over there is 
a period of six months of review where the NGO has to pay 
rent on facilities (and the MCA investigator visits every 
NGO) but is not allowed to hold activities until the 
certification is complete. 
 
Utility Equals Survival 
----------------------- 
 
¶11.  (SBU) In this climate most NGOs don't bother to 
register. All unregistered NGOs staff spoken with seemed to 
judge their prospect for survival on sheer usefulness of 
their programs and ability to avoid controversy.  Huiling 
officials see their kindergarten as in danger because there 
are so many kindergartens in the area that can accept people 
with mild disabilities but are relatively secure that their 
adult home for moderate and severely-mentally handicapped 
people (that shares the same illegal status) will not have 
problems because it is the only organization that provides 
this kind of service in the area.  Health-related NGO 
officials were even more secure in their status because they 
provide such a stable source of international funding and/or 
recognition for the local CDCs and hospitals that they are 
not concerned about being shut down by the MCA.  In 
addition, there is no system in place for the MCA or the 
police to enforce registration laws, so if a NGO avoids 
controversy and focus on providing services only they can 
usually avoid trouble. 
 
...Unless There is Bad Press 
------------------------------- 
 
¶12.  (SBU) As issues ebb and flow so does the government's 
favor and their blind eye to "illegal unregistered NGOs". 
For example, after a group of HIV-positive people from Henan 
Province protested in Beijing the topic became more 
sensitive.  The news story is complicated as it is said that 
the patients witnessed the high standard of care at the 
Hubei Province Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) clinic and 
became incensed and decided to protest (with some 
encouragement from Aizhixiong, a Beijing-based AIDS 
unregistered NGO).  The end result is the advanced stage of 
negotiations for a new Henan MSF clinic was abandoned and 
another AIDS NGO in our area (that also operates in Hubei) 
was told informally by a Department of Health official to 
avoid programs with Henan people until the furor died down. 
The surveillance on his organization, not only in Hubei, but 
also here in Guangzhou has greatly increased.  Additionally, 
a request from Congenoff for a meeting with the Nanning, 
Guangxi Province MSF clinic was referred to the Beijing 
Headquarters (this had not been done on a previous visit) 
and then refused.  Through the Guangxi CDC, Congenoffs were 
 
still able to visit the MSF clinic and speak with their 
staff but only on a brief, informal basis. 
 
....Or You Try to Organize Workers 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶13.  (SBU) Last year when the NGO environment was generally 
seen as tense a newspaper article in Hong Kong about labor 
conditions in Guangdong Province landed the Chinese Womens 
Working Network (CWWN) in hot water (septel).  While it had 
cooperated with the Department of Health in the past over 
health issues many of their activities involve trying to 
organize female migrant laborers in the Pearl River Delta to 
demand their rights.  They received an order to register 
their center as a NGO through the MCA immediately.  Since 
they had no hope of finding a government sponsor they closed 
up shop and set up temporary offices, moving 3-4 times in 
one year. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶14.  (SBU) The bad news is that it is still extremely 
difficult to be able to legally register as a NGO through 
the MCA unless the NGO founders are exceptional or 
exceptionally well-connected.  The good news is you can 
mainly operate without registration, though it is 
technically illegal.  Based on discussions with 22 different 
NGO organizations and researchers (not including the eight 
government departments also interviewed), it was clear that 
Guangdong and Guangxi follow national trends in having a 
much larger proportion of NGOs unregistered than registered. 
The advocacy role is largely vacated in Guangdong and 
Guangxi as HIV/AIDS NGOs focus on the at-risk populations 
only, disability NGOs focus on providing services, and legal 
aid NGOs focus on education instead of public advocacy. 
NGOs are doing great at providing government-type social 
services but are lacking in public information, advocacy 
activities.  Even the local Greenpeace office seems to be a 
quieter, defanged version of its international (or even Hong 
Kong) self.  All of the NGOs interviewed do an incredibly 
large amount of work with a high level of enthusiasm and 
have an impact on their target audience, but as long as NGOs 
are confined to the legal sidelines their ability to build a 
strong civil society is marginalized. 
 
Dong